Research Associate - IT Infrastructure Lead

Research Associate - IT Infrastructure Lead

We are seeking a highly technical and experienced IT Infrastructure Lead manager to lead our team of systems administrators and DevOps engineers while actively supporting the design, implementation, and operation of our infrastructure and services. A successful candidate will develop and implement an IT strategy that aligns with our organization’s mission, oversee day‑to‑day IT operations, and ensure the security and stability of critical systems. The role involves collaboration with scientific application developers, software developers, and trainers to support key web services for a global scientific community at the RCSB Protein Data Bank, Institute for Quantitative Biomedicine, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ.

Salary

Minimum compensation: $120,000 annually, with final offer determined by qualifications, experience, and departmental or grant funds.

Responsibilities

• Lead the DevOps team and manage daily operations of IT infrastructure and services following institutional standards, including infrastructure, CI/CD pipelines, networks, security, applications, and hardware.
• Provide support for debugging and troubleshooting complex production issues across application, infrastructure, and data layers; lead incident response, root‑cause analysis, and long‑term remediation efforts.
• Develop and implement a long‑term multi‑year IT infrastructure strategy, identifying, anticipating, and prioritizing infrastructure needs.
• Manage budgeting and vendor relationships with hardware and service providers.
• Develop and maintain code for automation and infrastructure, including provisioning, deployment, monitoring, and operational workflows (infrastructure as code).
• Establish project plans and track progress to monitor risks and deliverables.
• Serve as a technical subject‑matter expert, providing guidance and answering technical questions to internal and external stakeholders and partners.
• Collaborate closely with software and scientific application developers to ensure systems are observable, operable, and performant in production, and contribute to application code when needed to diagnose or resolve issues.

Qualifications

• Minimum of 5 years experience in IT.
• Strong analytical and problem‑solving skills.
• Good understanding of IT infrastructures across the entire stack, including hardware, network components, security, and cloud technologies.
• In‑depth experience with Kubernetes and Docker; experience with NodeJS, Java, or Python (more than one is a plus).
• Excellent leadership, communication, and interpersonal skills.
• Experience developing and maintaining modern DevOps CI/CD pipelines; experience with GitHub Actions is a plus.
• Experience administering Linux server environments.
• Experience working in data centers maintaining service uptime, including hardware installation, equipment moves, networking, power management, and interaction with data center personnel.
• Experience with email services setup and administration, platform migration, and general management of multi‑email systems.

Preferred Qualifications

• Hands‑on experience with MongoDB and Elasticsearch clusters.
• Experience with tooling and automation for commercial cloud environments (AWS, GCP).

Benefits

• Medical, prescription drug, and dental coverage.
• Paid vacation, holidays, and various leave programs.
• Competitive retirement benefits, including defined contribution plans and voluntary tax‑deferred savings options.
• Employee and dependent educational benefits.

Physical Demands and Work Environment

Individual will work onsite at RCSB PDB located at Rutgers University – New Brunswick. Standing, sitting, walking, talking or hearing. Visual acuity to perform activities such as viewing a computer terminal, reading, analyzing written information/data, etc. Ability to perform physical labor without restrictions, including lifting equipment up to fifty (50) pounds. Office environment. Moderate noise.

Equal Employment Opportunity Statement

It is university policy to provide equal employment opportunity to all its employees and applicants for employment regardless of race, creed, color, national origin, age, ancestry, nationality, marital or domestic partnership or civil union status, sex, pregnancy, gender identity or expression, disability status, liability for military service, protected veteran status, affectional or sexual orientation, atypical cellular or blood trait, genetic information (including the refusal to submit to genetic testing), or any other category protected by law. As an institution, we encourage all qualified applicants to apply.